In 2016, 3D audio company Ossic successfully raised $2.7 million, through Kickstarter. Additionally, they raised another $3.2 million on Indiegogo to develop headphones designed specifically for VR headsets. Unfortunately, the company has announced that they will be shutting down operations and will be cancelling pre-orders. Ossic has recently posted a message on its website stating,“It is with an extremely heavy heart that we must inform you that OSSIC is shutting down and will be unable to deliver the remaining OSSIC X headphones.”

This means that none of the 22,000 people who have preordered Ossic high-end headset will be receiving the device.

Ossic’s posted a message on its website, informing customers that the company had failed to secure additional investment to bring its flagship high-end 3D headphones the “Ossic X” into full mass production. The company was seeking to raise upwards of another $2 million. “The OSSIC X was an ambitious and expensive product to develop. With funds from the crowdfunding campaign, along with angel investment, we were able to develop the product and ship the initial units. However, the product still requires significantly more capital to ramp to full mass production, and the company is out of money.” Ossic partly blames VR’s ‘slow start’ and cites other technological startups who had similar ambitions at failing to deliver due to a lack of investment

In January, the company announced its Innovator/Developer units would be shipped, but these were originally scheduled to be delivered in 2016. This has angered many customers, who along with the recent announcement, have created a Facebook group threatening a class action lawsuit against the company. Unfortunately for those customers, most crowdfunding platforms don’t allow refunds, as they view the contributions or preorders as ‘investments’ rather than a guaranteed purchases.

“We will forever be grateful to you and the team members, investors, and business partners who believed in us and helped give our dream a fighting chance,” Ossic concluded.

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